The Disappearance of Thomas Medlin By Laney Merrick, 11th grade
THOMAS MEDLIN, a 15 year old boy, went missing recently as of January 9th, 2026.
Thomas Medlin lives in Long Island, however, he was last seen at Grand Central Station after school where there was a train that would go to New York city. Medlin’s parents shared that Thomas was never the kid to misbehave, and the fact that he would “run” out of school to take a train out of town was very out of character for him.
Upon discovering he had an alternate Roblox game account to bypass certain safety
features, his parents believed he left with the intention of meeting up with a stranger he met online. However, after investigating his social media accounts and online gaming accounts, the Suffolk County police Department found no evidence of grooming or trafficking, and began to question other reasons for his behavior.
Upon two weeks of no conclusions, the family becomes agitated with the police
investigation's lack of findings. After school, Thomas found himself on a train to Manhattan, and a camera caught him two hours later at the Grand Central Station. Further, security camera surveillance at the Manhattan Bridge shows that he was crossing the pedestrian bridge, and then there was an “eerie splash” in the East River just moments after spotting him. There was no camera footage showing him leaving the bridge or leaving the station. Evidence does not conclude a death, but an unsettling lack of further investigation suggests that the “splash” seen in the water could’ve been him, whether he jumped in or slipped, that was unknown.
There was reasonable questioning brought up against the idea that the splash was
related to him at all. The time correlation to when he was seen walking across the bridge to